Mathieu van der Poel racked up his seventh consecutive win of the season in New Year’s Day’s greasy GP Sven Nys, the sixth round of the 2025-2026 X2O Badkamers Trofee in Baal, Belgium. The world champion had company in Emiel Verstrynge in the middle of the race, but dispatched the Belgian on Lap 7 of 9. Fifth place Joris Nieuwenhuis retained his series lead.
Earlier in the day in the Junior men’s race, Canada’s Evan Moore came sixth, Emilien Belzile placed 11th, Sagan Goertz made 17th, Grayson Franks hit 25th, Farland Lamont slotted into 29th and Thomas Deniger finished 43rd. In the U23 men’s race, Liam Sargent was 32nd, Lucas Goertz 50th and Remi Brisebois 54th.
Preliminaries
Round 2 victor Nieuwenhuis, still not at his best after a crash in the Antwerp World Cup, led the classification by 1:01 over missing Superprestige series leader Niels Vandeputte and Cameron Mason. Van der Poel had won the last two dates, but as GP Sven Nys was the last X2O Trofee round on his calendar, he couldn’t threaten Nieuwenhuis and Mason’s positions.
After disappointment in Diegem’s night affair, Thibau Nys had extra incentive to win his dad’s race. He was prominent at the front with Nieuwenhuis and Mason, van der Poel moving up early. Nys came out of the slick off-camber section in the lead. Verstrynge w used a paved climb to take over the lead. Toon Aerts took over to climb into the forest–Nys faded back. Mason spurted out to take the bonus seconds at the end of the Lap 1.
Mason was riding with his tail up, Aerts and van der Poel having to chase on Lap 2. The off-camber section saw van der Poel pull out front and hammer. Aerts tracked the world champion, but van der Poel used the paved climb to pile it on. Verstrynge was seven seconds back and Aerts 11 seconds in arrears by the line.
Nieuwenhuis and Nys were still in the podium conversation on Lap 3, as was Jente Michels in his new Alpecin-Premier Tech togs. Verstrynge didn’t relent, and he yanked back van der Poel. Aerts went back to Nys, Nieuwenhuis and Michels. This gang was +0:26.
On Lap 4 of 8 Verstynge was the remora to the rainbow banded shark. Van der Poel crashed in an uphill rut and Verstrynge was now the one in the ascendancy. At the midpoint, the leading duo was 30 seconds clear.
Van der Poel and Verstrynge both hopped on fresh…
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